Saturday, March 17, 2012

Poems, Paintings, Sculptures, Analects, Prophecies, Plays, Quotes, Axioms, Photographs....

From Parabola:


The Indivisible Sky
Emma Tapley, GREENBELT, OIL ON CLAY PANEL, 40" x 60", 2010Richard Whittaker, "Stairway framed by large rocks," Pinnacles National Monument, CA. From the series, "Found Paths."

Ramakrishna, a 19th-century Hindu saint, said:
"God has made different religions to suit different aspirations, times, and countries. All doctrines are only so many paths; but a path is by no means God Himself. Indeed, one can reach God if one follows any of the paths with wholehearted devotion… 
As one can ascend to the top of a house by means of a ladder or a bamboo or a staircase or a rope, so diverse are the ways and means to approach God, and every religion in the world shows one of these ways.   …  People partition off their lands by means of boundaries, but no one can partition off the all-embracing sky overhead. The indivisible sky surrounds all and includes all.  …  When a heart is illumined by true knowledge, it knows that above all these wars of sects and sectarians presides the one indivisible, eternal, all-knowing bliss.”

ARCS
Rembrandt, "Saint Francis beneath a Tree, Praying," 1657Rembrandt, "Saint Francis beneath a Tree, Praying," 1657
“Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” 
―St. Francis of Assisi

Minor White, "Road and Poplar Trees," 1955Minor White, "Road and Poplar Trees," 1955
“The real transformation of human nature comes not through an austere, ascetic life or a complete withdrawal from the world, but through a gradual and total illumination of life.”
Sri Chinmoy 

Lee van Laer, "Confucian Temple," Shanghai, October 2011Beautiful pics from the Confucian Temple, Shanghai, October 2011 from Parabola’s poetry editor, Lee van Laer. Thanks Lee! Of this particular photo, Lee writes: “Chinese gardens and temples typically display meticulously landscaped paths and features which reveal intimate new aspects with practically every step. Vegetation is chosen for complementary aesthetic qualities, such as sweeping willow branches, scalloped topiaries, spreading grasses and exuberant bamboos.”
"These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God today. There is no time for them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence. But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to forsee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time."
―Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Essays and Lectures" (New York: Penguin, 1983), 270.

Kent Shiraishi, "The Blue Pond," Hokkaido, JapanMichelangelo Buonarroti: "The Dream of Human Life," 1534
NOT KNOWING
how would it be to allow for knowing
and not knowing:
allowing room
for the mystery
of creating
to be able to wonder
softly
without needing to understand everything
to trust in the process
to trust in love
to trust in the mystery and wonder
of the universe
that beats softly wildly
true
all round about us,
that is hidden
in the mists
in the clouds and the rain
in the wind blowing and the rain lashing down on your window,
reminding you
poetically
prosaically
that this is where you are,
on the island,
at the edge,
in a place of finding
and refinding,
and remembering
to remember
the feel of the mist, wind and rain.
—John O’Donohue. With thanks to It's All Dhamma.


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